“The Laughter of Ecstasy Doesn’t Laugh”—Bataille on the Divinity of Nothing

Abstract Georges Bataille’s significance as a philosopher can be disputed, but his relevance for the study of laughter cannot be overlooked nor should the role he gives to nothingness be underestimated. To appreciate the 20th-century French thinker’s view of the divinity of nothingness, a presentation of his complex reflection on laughter is in order. I attempt to provide as coherent an account as possible, so that in assessing the originality and viability of Bataille’s theory of laughter we may enlighten his views on the divinity of nothing. The interest of Bataille in the relation between philosophy and laughter is explicitly stated: He declares that insofar as he is a philosopher, he is a “philosopher of laughter”; he considers laughter the puzzle which “at all costs” he “would solve” because if solved, it “would of itself solve everything”; and he maintains that “laughter is the central given, the first given, and perhaps even the final given behind philosophy.” Following his extraordinary experiences with laughter, in which, “illuminated convulsively,” he discovered that laughter was revelation, that it “opened up the depth of things,” Bataille declared laughter divine and confessed to his fear of being ultimately “LAUGHTER ITSELF!” Defining himself a mystic in line with the mystics of all times, I argue that his thought and practice of laughter consist of a mysticism of laughter rather than a laughing mysticism. The originality of this view reduces its viability: it is intrinsically connected with Bataillean experiences of laughter and with his argument that one should lose rather than save oneself.